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Warning: Parameter 1 to wp_default_scripts() expected to be a reference, value given in /home/quietr5/booksfromhale.com/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 546Countdown to Halloween Story Marathon (story # 9) | Books From Hale

I am standing on the ground. I’m looking around me. A grave. Graves. A cemetery.

Was I in a grave? When? How?

Hungry. Starving.

I cannot think clearly. It is like everything is happening at once (hungry) or not happening at all. Was I just in a box? Grave?

Hungry. Pain all through me. Like something is pulling at me from inside. My chest -

Hungry…

I’m walking? It is dark. How did I get here? I do not feel like I am walking.

Hungry. The pain is so bad.

Nothing looks right. I cannot see colors. Is it because it is so dark? The sky is cloudy, but I can see everything clearly. I can hear everything clearly. I can smell -

I know that place. I think I live here. Yes, this is the village.

Hungry.

Wait.

If I am, was, buried alive, the churchyard is miles away from here. I was just there and I am here.

Why can I not remember what has happened? Was I ill? Was I injured? Why am I so . . .

Who am I?

I am, I was, I, it does not matter.

I am. And I am starving. I must have food, or I will . . .

This is my home. I have a family? Friends? I live here. They will help me. They must.

The pain is unbearable. If only I could think!

I beat upon the door. It is barred. All of the homes in the village are barred after dark. And the graves are kept very far away, because . . .

I am so hungry! I must have a fever. I must have had a fever and they thought I was dead.

She looks out through the window. She opens the door. She is made of light. I see her colors. She is all the colors and she smells so -

HUNGRY!

I cannot get to her. I cannot reach her. The door is open but I cannot move.

She is screaming, she is screaming so loudly. She is screaming like she did when I was carried back to this place, after . . .

There are others stirring. They are looking out, but they will not come out. No one in the village can ever go out after sunset.

I am so very hungry, and there is nothing to eat.

I am in the forest. I do not know how I got here. I am in the forest at night. No one can go into the forest at night, because monsters haunt these woods.

I see no monsters.

I was only out after sunset the one time before. I lost track of time. I saw a monster then.

I know who I am, now. I am Josef Hutter. I am a carpenter.

The sky begins to lighten. I am standing at the grave, my grave.

Josef Hutter’s grave. Me.

I WAS injured. I WAS very sick.

I am dead. And so very hungry.

The sky grows brighter. The sun will rise. I am afraid. I am more afraid, even, than hungry. I have to hide away. I have to go to sleep.

I am in a box. I am in my coffin. I do not know how I passed into the ground without disturbing it. I do not care. I. Just. Want. To. Sleep

——————————

The sexton unearthed him at midday. The priest officiated over the ceremony. Several of the men from the village attended, even some of the women. Sasha had taken to her bed, stricken by the horrors she had witnessed.

They cut off his head, of course, and placed the crucifix on him. Josef never rose again. But forever, Sasha Hutter remembered not her handsome, strong husband, but the red-eyed, slavering thing that lunged at her with terrible, sharp teeth.